The growing renewable energy secondary market reflects the extent to which the sector has become financialised, marketised and privatised. The secondary market provides a mechanism for investors to extract profit at the development or operational stages of renewable energy projects.
Detailed evidence of the global scale and scope of this market is set out in The Financialisation, Marketisation and Privatisation of Renewable Energy, ESSU Report No. 12 and a companion database which provides information on the 626 transactions between January 2019 and August 2020. Renewable energy electricity generation is largely in the control of finance capital and market forces so, that by 2050, generation, distribution and supply could be substantially owned and controlled by the private sector.
The public policy agenda must change from general demands for climate action and targets to those that focus on how the targets are going to be met and to rapidly increase public provision of power generation. The report sets out proposals to significantly increase public ownership and operation of renewable energy projects and to increase the scope and powers of regulatory frameworks.
The case aganst a secondary market in renewable energy assets and ten key strategies for public ownership are set out in the Public Ownership and Provison section of the website.
See new database covering 1,622 transactions in the 2019-2021 period plus detailed analysis in Challenging the Rise of Corporate Power in Renewable Energy book published 2023. See https://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/public-ownership